'Power of Duff' playwright delves into topics of faith and prayer

In his new play, "The Power of Duff" – currently being given its New England premiere by Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company in a production helmed by its Artistic Director Peter DuBois – playwright Stephen Belber explores what can happen when one less well-known anchor decides to end his broadcasts in prayer.

By R. Scott Reedy/Correspondent

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

By R. Scott Reedy/Correspondent

Posted Oct. 10, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Oct 10, 2013 at 10:15 AM

By R. Scott Reedy/Correspondent

Posted Oct. 10, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Oct 10, 2013 at 10:15 AM

BOSTON

» Social News

Over the years, television news anchors have used sign-offs that ranged from classic and classy, like Walter Cronkite’s "And that’s the way it is" and Edward R. Murrow’s "Good night and good luck," to mystifying, such as Dan Rather’s much-mocked "Courage."

In his new play, "The Power of Duff" – currently being given its New England premiere by Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company in a production helmed by its Artistic Director Peter DuBois – playwright Stephen Belber explores what can happen when one less well-known anchor decides to end his broadcasts in prayer.

"I got the initial impulse for this after reading a Time magazine article which reported that 19 out of 20 Americans believe in God. That didn’t really surprise me, but it became more eye opening the more I thought about it," explained Belber by telephone last week from New York. "What would happen if you had a spiritually ambivalent person in a position of prominence who, because he invokes religion, becomes looked to as a leader? It seemed to me that since we have the vast majority of a nation believing, at the very least, in the existence of a true spiritual force, then it would be interesting to create a character that taps into or in some way comes to harness that power in a simple but surprising way."

Belber, a Washington, D.C. native, chose as his main character Charlie Duff, a past-his-prime newsman stuck behind a Rochester, N.Y., anchor desk while his ambition wanes and his family relationships fray.

"What I thought would work best was to have the central character stumble into this situation accidentally and honestly, and be someone who was flawed and susceptible to non-saintly impulses. Charlie Duff has had his moment and lost it. He’s just phoning it in now when it comes to his career and his life. He’s a divorced guy whose son stopped talking to him when he learned of his father’s many affairs while he was married to his mother. Charlie may be a local celebrity, but he has no real friends. As the play opens, he loses his father. He reaches out to his cousin, but there is distance between them, and he calls his ex-wife to try and reconnect with her. He tries to speak with his son, too, but their relationship is too strained. And then, when he is back on the air, he finds feelings within himself that manifest in his using the language of prayer to close out his news broadcasts. At first, his boss and his co-anchor aren’t very happy. Much of the public reacts differently, however, and he has to grapple with this new response. He becomes a phenomenon among many of his viewers. He is challenged by that, too, because he realizes he has a power. He can use it as either a simple social justice sign-off or something bigger."

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The 46-year-old Belber, a playwright, screenwriter, and film director, is best known for his plays, including 2004’s Tony-nominated "Match," and "Carol Mulroney," which the Huntington produced in its 2005 world premiere. It was at about that time that Belber was working on a screenplay version of "The Power of Duff," which was then rumored to be in development by director Ron Howard as a feature film to star Russell Crowe. That film was not made, but Belber has since gone on to write and direct the 2009 romantic comedy "Management," starring Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn, and the feature film version of "Match," starring Patrick Stewart, which wrapped production earlier this year. He returned to "The Power of Duff" to adapt his original screenplay for the stage. The play had its world premiere in 2012 at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and New York Stage & Film’s Powerhouse Theatre in New York City.

"Film is all about words and visuals, where theater is all about words. When I wrote this as a screenplay years ago, it was a big sprawling process. This time around, I decided to go deeper into these characters. We use video to tell the story on stage, but this version is definitely more about the words."

And, in the case of this play, the words are faith and prayer, topics the playwright – Emmy nominated as one of the writers of the screenplay for HBO’s 2002 adaptation of "The Laramie Project" – readily acknowledges are not second nature to him.

"After being an undergraduate in philosophy at Trinity, I guess it was hard to shake it off completely. I’m not an expert on faith, but I wanted to be open to the concept of it. When I was preparing to write this play, I went off by myself for two weeks to a friend’s lake house to meditate, watch the water, and listen to Deepak Chopra," says Belber. "I’ve always thought of true or organized religions as feeling for people and taking action on their behalf. I think that manifests in empathy. And there are a lot of non-believers who envy those who do believe. Faith is obviously a very big topic, but so is the idea of connection, and I was intrigued by the idea of a completely disconnected individual alone on an enormous empty stage. And then you see him surrounded by people and yet unable to connect. The latter stage picture seemed to me to represent today’s society in many ways. We’re sometimes the most alone when we’re plopped down right in the middle of everything going on in the world around us."